Kansas City University Freezes Tuition for 2020-21 Academic Year

University moves to ease financial hardships due to COVID-19

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Apr 23, 2020, 13:24 ET

KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Trustees of Kansas City University (KCU) announced this week a freeze on tuition for all academic programs for the 2020-21 academic year, rescinding a previously announced 3% increase in order to support students during the COVID-19 pandemic and ease financial hardships they face.

"It is a priority for Kansas City University to keep the cost of education as low as possible for all of our students," said Marc B. Hahn, DO, president and CEO of KCU. "KCU has notably remained one of the ten least expensive private medical schools (MD or DO) in the nation. Especially now, we recognize the added financial hardships that many of our students and their families are facing because of the COVID-19 pandemic."

The COVID-19 pandemic has created many challenges for higher education, and the full extent of those challenges is not yet known. Many universities and colleges are instituting hiring freezes, staff reductions and salary freezes.

Despite these uncertainties, KCU vows to offer all manner of support to its students, who already experience an extremely rigorous and often stressful curriculum. These students will be needed to bolster the ranks of the nation's medical, mental health and science professionals, as the U.S. health-care system—which already faces a shortage of personnel—encounters many more challenges in the years to come.

In conjunction with the tuition freeze, KCU's Office of Institutional Advancement is seeking specific philanthropic support through a KCU COVID-19 Response Fund, which will address key areas related to the pandemic, including student hardship and academic technology support.

"KCU is pleased to offer these measures to help ease students' financial burden, while remaining committed to delivering programs that satisfy all accreditation requirements and keep our students on track to graduate on time," added Hahn. "Together, these actions move KCU ever closer to realizing its vision to be the most student-focused health sciences university in the nation."

About Kansas City University
Kansas City University, founded in 1916, is a regionally accredited, not-for-profit private health sciences university with a College of Osteopathic Medicine and a College of Biosciences. The College of Osteopathic Medicine is the eighth largest medical school in the nation and the leading producer of physicians for the State of Missouri. KCU opened a second medical school campus in Joplin, Mo. in 2017 to help address the growing need for physicians in the region's rural communities. The University offers numerous graduate degrees to include a doctoral program in clinical psychology started in 2017 to meet the growing demand for behavioral health providers in the region. Groundbreaking for a College of Dental Medicine in Joplin, Mo., will take place late 2020.